Threatened and Endangered Species

The BLM, as a federal agency, is required under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to carry out programs to protect and recover threatened and endangered (T&E) species and the ecosystems upon which they depend and implements tasks identified in T&E recovery plans developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service. The BLM also implements conservation actions for sensitive and candidate species to preclude the need for federal listing. The Threatened and Endangered Species Program works to conserve and recover federally-listed animal and plant species and their habitat on public lands and shares cooperative responsibility with other BLM programs and partners for conservation of candidate and sensitive species. The scope of the T&E Species Program spans all taxa that merit designation under the Endangered Species Act or are identified as BLM sensitive species, providing a cross section of the most imperiled species of mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, invertebrates, fish, and plants. As of 2023, there are over 330 federally threatened and endangered species and 2400 federal sensitive species occur within BLM managed lands. Public lands often provide the key habitat for species recovery and conservation. Managing more land than any other federal agency, the BLM plays a pivotal and substantive role in species recovery. Due to the commingling of federal and nonfederal lands, the BLM’s proactive commitment to conserve threatened and endangered species is essential to federal, state, and non-governmental organizations in meeting our mutual interest of species recovery. Collaboration on conservation endeavors with the ultimate goal to increase threatened and endangered species or BLM sensitive species populations and manage and restore habitat of these federal trust wildlife, fish and plants within the public domain, serves a public purpose as required in cooperative agreements.